NEW DELHI, INDIA: The audacious request by the RSS nationalist Hindu organization that Christians in India form their own "Swadeshi Churches," i.e., churches based in India and run by Indians, has received support from an unexpected quarter. The President of the Poor Christian Liberation Movement, R.L. Francis, complained that Christian leaders discriminated against backward Christians in India, and that most church organizations were "commercial enterprises." Francis said his organization will initiate an awareness campaign to demand equal rights for dalits (untouchable caste) in church bodies and strengthen harmony between Hindus and Christians. The Christian churches in India for the most part maintain caste discrimination even though it is against the law and even though the religion is not supposed to recognize caste. There exist "brahmin churches" and "non-brahmin churches," as even today in the Southern United States there are "white" and "black" churches still segregated by race.

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